Gold in Iraq

In the last few weeks there were talks of a massive Gold discovery in Iraq!

I was unable to find any news about when Googling.

Can someone post a link to the announcement?


Here is a post from Vic1 tonight "[7:18:33 PM] vic1 to mskish:
read my Prior posts from many days ago! My opinion has never changed! My
Friends from overseas are very Strong Built Foundation type of People! My point
of view....The MAN with The GOLD makes the RULES!!! IRAQ....JUST FOUND TONNES
OF GOLD! More than Anyone can IMAGINE!!! That is my 2Fils for the day!"

Also something this hugh should be on mainstream news and gold sites!

Am I missing something here?

Thanks in advance for any links or additional information.

Good evening EddieB:

LINK:
http://www.3sintel.net/forum/index.php?/topic/2391-oil-will-be-the-second-metal-the-discovery-of-gold-in-the-area-of-luxury-in-eastern-baghdad/

Posted 15 February 2012 - 06:02 PM

Oil will be the second metal: the discovery of Gold in the area of luxury in eastern Baghdad


14/02/2012

BAGHDAD / Hadi Marei JLo

Continue drilling operations in the area of luxury Aldajh populated eastern Baghdad after the discovery of the existence of huge quantities of atoms of gold metal in the soil ... and continue exploration and drilling for more than two years in the region, under the street extending from Fudhaliyah until the end of the quarter-Obeidi, or so-called (Htit) a low water is used for the diversion of rain water in flood seasons, said that the leader Abd al-Karim Qasim is drilled.

Was raised thousands of tons of dust, which set aside in order to purification and extraction of gold atoms.

Says the citizen p. As. C, the drilling operations Taudnaha for more than thirty years of full and since I was young where it continues mechanisms digging the ground in alleys dilapidated and in the street Mayatal traffic and lead to suffocation of citizens and injury beams health prompted families to remove the elderly from the area and transferred to the suburbs beyond especially people with asthma and shortness of breath, he said, we did not know the reasons that push to drill here or there but we were surprised during the past two years to begin drilling operations is a natural and extends for several meters deep in the earth except for drilling longitudinal spanning more than ten kilometers, and then to hear from people that the subject matter related to the discovery of gold.

And Iraq is full of large quantities of petroleum which Aistvid from the Iraqi people which are exported huge quantities of it to global markets and money returns do not prepare for the Allens and countless citizen any of them, while there are other minerals in smaller quantities.

However, the discovery of gold in the luxury and commercial quantities could turn Iraq into a producer of gold more than oil, and pay the Western countries to re-occupation of as usual through the centuries passed his time, dusty, and is expected to increase the prices of real estate in this neighborhood modest start with the influx of job seekers Gold. :cheers:

http://translate.goo...YwzVPUb_W4MUsnw

I remember reading an article week before last about a vein of gold mixed in the soil over several blocks of one of the Iraqi towns.

Just a few feet below the houses and buildings..and A LOT of it to boot !

That's where I WANT TO LIVE !!!!!

Well, I would have to see something a bit more descriptive of exactly what all that means before I'd say this was a giant gold strike. Just what does "huge quantites of atoms of gold metal in the soil" mean in terms of ounces per ton? Where are they keeping these "tons of dust" waiting for extraction of gold? How much gold is being produced? Do they plan to dig up the entire "area of luxury" to get the gold?

You would think if this is going to turn Iraq into a bigger producer of gold than of oil, there just might be a bit more excitment about it in at least the Iraqi press, if not the world press.

prosetian, it's called dinar goggles. For some reason, any news coming out of Iraq now is the biggest thing the world has ever seen. It sounds to me like they have alot of gold dust but I'm with you, this doesn't mean there is a ton of it. Besides, the middle east is not always known for it's honesty about these things.

it was a false report. no gold in iraq.

Here is a little history:

Iraq

Following the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, George W. Bush awarded the first Iraq reconstruction contract to Bechtel through USAID, on April 20th, 2003. This contract was worth an estimated $680 million. ^[16][17] It is alleged that some of the construction projects managed by Bechtel were either poorly implemented, failing within months of their installation, or designed in such a way that Iraqi engineers did not have the knowledge or components to fix Bechtel's proprietary technology.^[18][19]

On May 5, 2003, The New Yorker ran an article revealing that the bin Laden family had passively invested several million dollars in The Fremont Group, a private equity fund owned by the Bechtel family.<sup>[20]

There seems to be a gap.../ removed... And it is huge......

But Iraq hired a german company to teach them mining in 2008/2009 and yes, they found gold...and lots of it..Yet there is no record of the gold reserves they hold..Why is that?? That is a resource the the GOI holds, not the CBI... Yet no real records that are published that we can see..

My point is...there are many resources that Iraq holds..that is not being published...

Now, not to take you off of point, but here are some other facts that are not published/ brought out in the media....Keep your "keen" eyes on these..

I believe, this information will be "side lined" before long...</sup>

WASHINGTON — The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials.

The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe.

An internal Pentagon memo, for example, states that Afghanistan could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium,” a key raw material in the manufacture of batteries for laptops and BlackBerrys.

The vast scale of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth was discovered by a small team of Pentagon officials and American geologists. The Afghan government and President Hamid Karzai were recently briefed, American officials said.

While it could take many years to develop a mining industry, the potential is so great that officials and executives in the industry believe it could attract heavy investment even before mines are profitable, providing the possibility of jobs that could distract from generations of war.

“There is stunning potential here,” Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the United States Central Command, said in an interview on Saturday. “There are a lot of ifs, of course, but I think potentially it is hugely significant.”

The value of the newly discovered mineral deposits dwarfs the size of Afghanistan’s existing war-bedraggled economy, which is based largely on opium production and narcotics trafficking as well as aid from the United States and other industrialized countries. Afghanistan’s gross domestic product is only about $12 billion.

“This will become the backbone of the Afghan economy,” said Jalil Jumriany, an adviser to the Afghan minister of mines.

American and Afghan officials agreed to discuss the mineral discoveries at a difficult moment in the war in Afghanistan. The American-led offensive in Marja in southern Afghanistan has achieved only limited gains. Meanwhile, charges of corruption and favoritism continue to plague the Karzai government, and Mr. Karzai seems increasingly embittered toward the White House.

So the Obama administration is hungry for some positive news to come out of Afghanistan. Yet the American officials also recognize that the mineral discoveries will almost certainly have a double-edged impact.

Instead of bringing peace, the newfound mineral wealth could lead the Taliban to battle even more fiercely to regain control of the country.

The corruption that is already rampant in the Karzai government could also be amplified by the new wealth, particularly if a handful of well-connected oligarchs, some with personal ties to the president, gain control of the resources. Just last year, Afghanistan’s minister of mines was accused by American officials of accepting a $30 million bribe to award China the rights to develop its copper mine. The minister has since been replaced.

Endless fights could erupt between the central government in Kabul and provincial and tribal leaders in mineral-rich districts. Afghanistan has a national mining law, written with the help of advisers from the World Bank, but it has never faced a serious challenge.

“No one has tested that law; no one knows how it will stand up in a fight between the central government and the provinces,” observed Paul A. Brinkley, deputy undersecretary of defense for business and leader of the Pentagon team that discovered the deposits.

At the same time, American officials fear resource-hungry China will try to dominate the development of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth, which could upset the United States, given its heavy investment in the region. After winning the bid for its Aynak copper mine in Logar Province, China clearly wants more, American officials said.

Another complication is that because Afghanistan has never had much heavy industry before, it has little or no history of environmental protection either. “The big question is, can this be developed in a responsible way, in a way that is environmentally and socially responsible?” Mr. Brinkley said. “No one knows how this will work.”

With virtually no mining industry or infrastructure in place today, it will take decades for Afghanistan to exploit its mineral wealth fully. “This is a country that has no mining culture,” said Jack Medlin, a geologist in the United States Geological Survey’s international affairs program. “They’ve had some small artisanal mines, but now there could be some very, very large mines that will require more than just a gold pan.”

The mineral deposits are scattered throughout the country, including in the southern and eastern regions along the border with Pakistan that have had some of the most intense combat in the American-led war against the Taliban insurgency.

The Pentagon task force has already started trying to help the Afghans set up a system to deal with mineral development. International accounting firms that have expertise in mining contracts have been hired to consult with the Afghan Ministry of Mines, and technical data is being prepared to turn over to multinational mining companies and other potential foreign investors. The Pentagon is helping Afghan officials arrange to start seeking bids on mineral rights by next fall, officials said.

“The Ministry of Mines is not ready to handle this,” Mr. Brinkley said. “We are trying to help them get ready.”

Like much of the recent history of the country, the story of the discovery of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth is one of missed opportunities and the distractions of war.

In 2004, American geologists, sent to Afghanistan as part of a broader reconstruction effort, stumbled across an intriguing series of old charts and data at the library of the Afghan Geological Survey in Kabul that hinted at major mineral deposits in the country. They soon learned that the data had been collected by Soviet mining experts during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, but cast aside when the Soviets withdrew in 1989.

During the chaos of the 1990s, when Afghanistan was mired in civil war and later ruled by the Taliban, a small group of Afghan geologists protected the charts by taking them home, and returned them to the Geological Survey’s library only after the American invasion and the ouster of the Taliban in 2001.

“There were maps, but the development did not take place, because you had 30 to 35 years of war,” said Ahmad Hujabre, an Afghan engineer who worked for the Ministry of Mines in the 1970s.

Armed with the old Russian charts, the United States Geological Survey began a series of aerial surveys of Afghanistan’s mineral resources in 2006, using advanced gravity and magnetic measuring equipment attached to an old Navy Orion P-3 aircraft that flew over about 70 percent of the country.

The data from those flights was so promising that in 2007, the geologists returned for an even more sophisticated study, using an old British bomber equipped with instruments that offered a three-dimensional profile of mineral deposits below the earth’s surface. It was the most comprehensive geologic survey of Afghanistan ever conducted.

The handful of American geologists who pored over the new data said the results were astonishing.

But the results gathered dust for two more years, ignored by officials in both the American and Afghan governments. In 2009, a Pentagon task force that had created business development programs in Iraq was transferred to Afghanistan, and came upon the geological data. Until then, no one besides the geologists had bothered to look at the information — and no one had sought to translate the technical data to measure the potential economic value of the mineral deposits.

Soon, the Pentagon business development task force brought in teams of American mining experts to validate the survey’s findings, and then briefed Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Mr. Karzai.

So far, the biggest mineral deposits discovered are of iron and copper, and the quantities are large enough to make Afghanistan a major world producer of both, United States officials said. Other finds include large deposits of niobium, a soft metal used in producing superconducting steel, rare earth elements and large gold deposits in Pashtun areas of southern Afghanistan.

Just this month, American geologists working with the Pentagon team have been conducting ground surveys on dry salt lakes in western Afghanistan where they believe there are large deposits of lithium. Pentagon officials said that their initial analysis at one location in Ghazni Province showed the potential for lithium deposits as large of those of Bolivia, which now has the world’s largest known lithium reserves.

For the geologists who are now scouring some of the most remote stretches of Afghanistan to complete the technical studies necessary before the international bidding process is begun, there is a growing sense that they are in the midst of one of the great discoveries of their careers.

“On the ground, it’s very, very, promising,” Mr. Medlin said. “Actually, it’s pretty amazing.”

Sorry Guys for being so long...

Here is a little history:

Iraq

Following the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, George W. Bush awarded the first Iraq reconstruction contract to Bechtel through USAID, on April 20th, 2003. This contract was worth an estimated $680 million. ^[16][17] It is alleged that some of the construction projects managed by Bechtel were either poorly implemented, failing within months of their installation, or designed in such a way that Iraqi engineers did not have the knowledge or components to fix Bechtel's proprietary technology.^[18][19]

On May 5, 2003, The New Yorker ran an article revealing that the bin Laden family had passively invested several million dollars in The Fremont Group, a private equity fund owned by the Bechtel family.<sup>[20]

There seems to be a gap.../ removed... And it is huge......

But Iraq hired a german company to teach them mining in 2008/2009 and yes, they found gold...and lots of it..Yet there is no record of the gold reserves they hold..Why is that?? That is a resource the the GOI holds, not the CBI... Yet no real records that are published that we can see..

My point is...there are many resources that Iraq holds..that is not being published...

Now, not to take you off of point, but here are some other facts that are not published/ brought out in the media....Keep your "keen" eyes on these..

I believe, this information will be "side lined" before long...</sup>

WASHINGTON — The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials.

The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe.

An internal Pentagon memo, for example, states that Afghanistan could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium,” a key raw material in the manufacture of batteries for laptops and BlackBerrys.

The vast scale of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth was discovered by a small team of Pentagon officials and American geologists. The Afghan government and President Hamid Karzai were recently briefed, American officials said.

While it could take many years to develop a mining industry, the potential is so great that officials and executives in the industry believe it could attract heavy investment even before mines are profitable, providing the possibility of jobs that could distract from generations of war.

“There is stunning potential here,” Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the United States Central Command, said in an interview on Saturday. “There are a lot of ifs, of course, but I think potentially it is hugely significant.”

The value of the newly discovered mineral deposits dwarfs the size of Afghanistan’s existing war-bedraggled economy, which is based largely on opium production and narcotics trafficking as well as aid from the United States and other industrialized countries. Afghanistan’s gross domestic product is only about $12 billion.

“This will become the backbone of the Afghan economy,” said Jalil Jumriany, an adviser to the Afghan minister of mines.

American and Afghan officials agreed to discuss the mineral discoveries at a difficult moment in the war in Afghanistan. The American-led offensive in Marja in southern Afghanistan has achieved only limited gains. Meanwhile, charges of corruption and favoritism continue to plague the Karzai government, and Mr. Karzai seems increasingly embittered toward the White House.

So the Obama administration is hungry for some positive news to come out of Afghanistan. Yet the American officials also recognize that the mineral discoveries will almost certainly have a double-edged impact.

Instead of bringing peace, the newfound mineral wealth could lead the Taliban to battle even more fiercely to regain control of the country.

The corruption that is already rampant in the Karzai government could also be amplified by the new wealth, particularly if a handful of well-connected oligarchs, some with personal ties to the president, gain control of the resources. Just last year, Afghanistan’s minister of mines was accused by American officials of accepting a $30 million bribe to award China the rights to develop its copper mine. The minister has since been replaced.

Endless fights could erupt between the central government in Kabul and provincial and tribal leaders in mineral-rich districts. Afghanistan has a national mining law, written with the help of advisers from the World Bank, but it has never faced a serious challenge.

“No one has tested that law; no one knows how it will stand up in a fight between the central government and the provinces,” observed Paul A. Brinkley, deputy undersecretary of defense for business and leader of the Pentagon team that discovered the deposits.

At the same time, American officials fear resource-hungry China will try to dominate the development of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth, which could upset the United States, given its heavy investment in the region. After winning the bid for its Aynak copper mine in Logar Province, China clearly wants more, American officials said.

Another complication is that because Afghanistan has never had much heavy industry before, it has little or no history of environmental protection either. “The big question is, can this be developed in a responsible way, in a way that is environmentally and socially responsible?” Mr. Brinkley said. “No one knows how this will work.”

With virtually no mining industry or infrastructure in place today, it will take decades for Afghanistan to exploit its mineral wealth fully. “This is a country that has no mining culture,” said Jack Medlin, a geologist in the United States Geological Survey’s international affairs program. “They’ve had some small artisanal mines, but now there could be some very, very large mines that will require more than just a gold pan.”

The mineral deposits are scattered throughout the country, including in the southern and eastern regions along the border with Pakistan that have had some of the most intense combat in the American-led war against the Taliban insurgency.

The Pentagon task force has already started trying to help the Afghans set up a system to deal with mineral development. International accounting firms that have expertise in mining contracts have been hired to consult with the Afghan Ministry of Mines, and technical data is being prepared to turn over to multinational mining companies and other potential foreign investors. The Pentagon is helping Afghan officials arrange to start seeking bids on mineral rights by next fall, officials said.

“The Ministry of Mines is not ready to handle this,” Mr. Brinkley said. “We are trying to help them get ready.”

Like much of the recent history of the country, the story of the discovery of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth is one of missed opportunities and the distractions of war.

In 2004, American geologists, sent to Afghanistan as part of a broader reconstruction effort, stumbled across an intriguing series of old charts and data at the library of the Afghan Geological Survey in Kabul that hinted at major mineral deposits in the country. They soon learned that the data had been collected by Soviet mining experts during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, but cast aside when the Soviets withdrew in 1989.

During the chaos of the 1990s, when Afghanistan was mired in civil war and later ruled by the Taliban, a small group of Afghan geologists protected the charts by taking them home, and returned them to the Geological Survey’s library only after the American invasion and the ouster of the Taliban in 2001.

“There were maps, but the development did not take place, because you had 30 to 35 years of war,” said Ahmad Hujabre, an Afghan engineer who worked for the Ministry of Mines in the 1970s.

Armed with the old Russian charts, the United States Geological Survey began a series of aerial surveys of Afghanistan’s mineral resources in 2006, using advanced gravity and magnetic measuring equipment attached to an old Navy Orion P-3 aircraft that flew over about 70 percent of the country.

The data from those flights was so promising that in 2007, the geologists returned for an even more sophisticated study, using an old British bomber equipped with instruments that offered a three-dimensional profile of mineral deposits below the earth’s surface. It was the most comprehensive geologic survey of Afghanistan ever conducted.

The handful of American geologists who pored over the new data said the results were astonishing.

But the results gathered dust for two more years, ignored by officials in both the American and Afghan governments. In 2009, a Pentagon task force that had created business development programs in Iraq was transferred to Afghanistan, and came upon the geological data. Until then, no one besides the geologists had bothered to look at the information — and no one had sought to translate the technical data to measure the potential economic value of the mineral deposits.

Soon, the Pentagon business development task force brought in teams of American mining experts to validate the survey’s findings, and then briefed Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Mr. Karzai.

So far, the biggest mineral deposits discovered are of iron and copper, and the quantities are large enough to make Afghanistan a major world producer of both, United States officials said. Other finds include large deposits of niobium, a soft metal used in producing superconducting steel, rare earth elements and large gold deposits in Pashtun areas of southern Afghanistan.

Just this month, American geologists working with the Pentagon team have been conducting ground surveys on dry salt lakes in western Afghanistan where they believe there are large deposits of lithium. Pentagon officials said that their initial analysis at one location in Ghazni Province showed the potential for lithium deposits as large of those of Bolivia, which now has the world’s largest known lithium reserves.

For the geologists who are now scouring some of the most remote stretches of Afghanistan to complete the technical studies necessary before the international bidding process is begun, there is a growing sense that they are in the midst of one of the great discoveries of their careers.

“On the ground, it’s very, very, promising,” Mr. Medlin said. “Actually, it’s pretty amazing.”

Sorry Guys for being so long...

The main gold in iraq is the gold sadam insane had hid away . After cheating the people of iraq out of billions of dollars

Well, I guess I won't be moving to Iraqi Hills after all....dang it, and I was lookin forward to that cement pond too !

Frankly, I care not whether they have an ounce of gold in the ground or not as long as they have the black gold and it keeps flowing. We KNOW they have that and the oil is what will pay us what we are looking for.

That's my opinion...oughta be yours!

mitkire wrote:it was a false report. no gold in iraq.

Yet we have gurus touting the wealth of Gold in Iraq.

"[7:18:33 PM] vic1 to mskish:
read my Prior posts from many days ago! My opinion has never changed! My
Friends from overseas are very Strong Built Foundation type of People! My point
of view....The MAN with The GOLD makes the RULES!!! IRAQ....JUST FOUND TONNES
OF GOLD! More than Anyone can IMAGINE!!! That is my 2Fils for the day!"

Thanks to all for responding to my questions. Much appreciated.

EddieB.
You are absolutely correct my man..
Below is one of many articals...But just as I stated there is a vast amount precious metals, including gold, copper, zinc, platinmum, etc.

Also as stated they have "cleaned" a lot of the information up...for what means we can only guess..

But look at what I posted last night about afghanistan, you will see this information "cleaned" from the system to...

http://www.iraqmining.com/

After 2 years of planning, Iraq's first mining conference was held at London's Royal Garden Hotel, with senior Iraqi politicians, world mining companies and industry experts hailing it as a ground-breaking success.

Between the 7th and 8th of September 2011 attendees were given a revealing insight into the massive potential of Iraq's mineral and materials industries and the billions of dollars of potential wealth which could be generated, not only for Iraq but the world at large.

I'd like to thank the following Iraqi politicians and senior officials for attending:
Dr Rowsch Nori Shaways, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Iraq,
Dr Ali al-Adeeb, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research,
Dr Sami al-Araji, Chairman of the National Investment Commission,
Dr Ali al-Dabbagh, Iraq Government Spokesman,
Mr Mohammed Abdullah, Deputy Minister of Industry and Minerals,
Dr Ahmed al-Shamma, Deputy Minister of Oil
Dr Samir Raouf, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology,
Mr Fadel al-Mukh, adviser to Iraq's Prime Minister,
Mr Khaled Shiltagh, representative of Central Bank of Iraq,
and from Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, Kurdistan Regional Government, KRG:
Mr Shirwan Azizi, Senior Advisor to the Minister,
Dr Sharaf Ahmad, Advisor to the Ministry,
Mr Saad Sadollah, Commercial Advisor

And a very special thanks to Dr Ali Allawi, former Iraq Minister of Finance, who introduced speakers at the conference and gave his own vision and insight. Also, Mr Munqith al-Baker, Senior Advisor to the Ministry of Industry and Minerals and Dr Khaldoun al-Bassam, Director General of Geosurv Iraq for their invaluable support and contribution.

I'd also like to thank Principal Partners: the Iraq Ministry of Industry and Minerals and the Iraq National Investment Commission; Event Partners: UK Trade and Investment and IBBC, and Lead Sponsors: Danieli and CCC, also Exhibitors: Aditya Birla Group, Ascom Geology and Mining, Dangote, Geosurv-Iraq, Getech, IBBC, Kier, Nordmeyer, Orascom, Vale, Welspun Corp, Principal Media Partner: Iraq Business News and Principal Airline Sponsor: SKA International Group.

Once again sincere best wishes to all of you for making Iraq Mining 2011 such a brilliant achievement.

Dr Abbas al-Hussaini
Iraq Mining 2011
CEO, Symexco Ltd.

After decades of sanctions, war and sectarian violence Iraq is emerging as one of the most dynamic economies in the world, with vast oil and gas fields powering the country's revival

But now a new resource is attracting global investors: the glittering mineral wealth beneath Iraq's deserts and mountainous regions

Referring to The Klondike gold-rush bonanza 200 years ago, one key-note speaker at Iraq Mining 2011 said: "I call this Iraq's Minerals Rush!"

• The sheer size of Iraq's mining and mineral resources are breathtaking.
  
• The conference was told natural deposits are some of the biggest in the world, including an estimated 600 million tonnes of native sulphur in the Mosul region, 10 billion tonnes of phosphates and 75 million tonnes of quartz sand under the Western Desert, 8 billion tonnes of limestone in Al Anbar and Suleimani, 50 million tonnes of salt in Al Anbar and Al Basrah. All these figures are thought to be conservative
  

There's gold under the Western Desert and in Kurdistan where there are also is millions of tonnes of zinc, copper and marble. Iraqi geology is also favourable to the discovery of platinum.

• In business the right timing of a new venture is vital, and once again investors, especially Westerners, are being urged to make a move now.
  
• The Conference heard the world's major mining and minerals companies are being offered deals worth billions of dollars, not only to extract but also convert Iraq's underground resources into key products for domestic and export markets.
  

Potential investment projects included plants for the production of: sodium sulphate in Salahadin Province, feldspar concentrate near Najaf, phosphates at Akashat, alumina at Akashat, silicone sand in al-Anbar province, Sodium Carbonate in Akashat, ceramic tables, sanitary ware and glass in various parts of Iraq.

Phosphates were identified as a massive growth market with a seemingly insatiable demand from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh where billions of tonnes of fertilisers for agriculture are needed annually. The Gulf region needs phosphates, as does Iraq, to maintain and grow agricultural economies

Other potential lucrative ventures include the millions of tonnes of cement and other building materials, like steel, which are urgently required for Iraq's massive construction projects including 3.5 million new homes in the next 5 years, a new railway system, new road expressways, airports, ports and iconic new buildings such as the Basrah Sports Complex.

Conference attendees heard there had been a sea-change in Iraqi Government economic policy: gone are the days of stagnation and bureaucracy; Baghdad's vision now included a liberal, transparent, free-market economy devoid of corruption.

Iraqi cabinet members revealed Iraq was fully open to foreign investment and wants to encourage it, especially with an Iraqi partner.

The Conference was told the Iraqi government has a 30 year economic plan for mines and minerals:

Up to 2015: "institutional building," introducing legislative changes to make Iraq more attractive to investors, establishing global links with international corporations and other entities, and 'smoothing' links between federal and provincial governorates.

2015 to 2020: "expansion and exploitation of mineral resources, " which included "clustering" whereby interrelated industries and institutions drive wealth creation through innovation and the export of good and services

2015 to 2030: the Iraqi government wants to see "sustainable and responsible growth in mining and minerals," in other words a green revolution of Iraq's minerals industries.

There was also a strong note of realism at the conference with reference to the huge challenges ahead both for Iraq and potential investors.

As one Iraqi key-note speaker put it: "I don't want to kid you everything is hunky-dory."

The Conference was told political stability was returning to Iraq and security improving all the time, despite recent bomb attacks.

But democracy had also brought its own bureaucracy and corruption persisted at many levels.

The Iraqi government is aware of these short-comings and is determined to eradicate layers of red-tape and stamp-out bribery.

Iraq's banking system, so vital to investors, was described at the Conference as: "primitive." They were told the Iraqi government is striving to upgrade services and this was: "work in progress." The Conference heard new bank arrivals in Iraq such as HSBC, Standard Chartered, Citibank and financial institutions including pwC would act as powerful catalysts for banking reform.

Investors also identified lack of credit facilities to fund major projects as a stumbling block. They were told the Iraqi government was working on this and Baghdad had noted several major US hedge funds now had Iraq in their sights for investment.

Iraq's National Investment Commission (NIC) was identified as one-stop shop to help foreign companies invest in mines and minerals. The NIC helps in obtaining licences, tax exemptions and land.

• Iraq's Five Year National Development Plan for 2010-2014 targets economic growth at 9.4 per cent, including nearly 3,000 projects worth up to US$190 billion. Around US$11 billion was reconstruction and a further US$72 billion was earmarked for capital projects like roads and housing.
  
• Overall the mood of the Conference was up-beat with potential investors showing keen interest in the massive wealth to be made out of Iraq's mining and minerals industries.
  

They also left with the clear message they would be involved in the re-building of a nation and working with a government determined to introduce a market-led, corruption free economy; a government ready to reach-out and to encourage foreign corporations - especially those with links to an Iraqi business partner.

Good find! There is some excellent reading on the pages of the link at the top: http://www.iraqmining.com/

The information there confirms deposits of Gold, along with Zinc, Copper, Lead, Iron, Marble, Limestone, Phosphates, Sulfur, Salt, Quartz and Silica sands, Gypsum, and possibly, Platinum, and Bauxite. No diamonds yet...